Making friends
by Vanilla Crystal
Summary: A first year has trouble making friends, until he finds one unexpectedly. This story is for people who feel alone but may not always be.


His heart leaped in his chest and his breath drew steadily quicker. He had no idea why he was so frightened. Perhaps it was the thought of being Sorted into a house and had to live with a group of people for the next seven years. He was never that good at making friends, as most people thought he was strange. He was being given another chance, though, a chance to stop history from repeating itself.  
  
He heard his name called, stepped up to the stool, and felt a musty hat being placed on his head.  
  
'Bright one, aren't you?' a voice in his head said, and he nearly toppled off the stool in surprise.  
  
'Er...' he thought, not knowing what to say to a hat.  
  
'There's potential to do so much.... resourceful one, you are... no set loyalties. That rules Hufflepuff out. Hmmm, perhaps you'll do well in Slytherin.'  
  
'I don't care where I go, just please put me somewhere I can have friends,' the boy thought.  
  
'It appears as though you are going to RAVENCLAW!' the Sorting Hat called out the House name and Professor McGonagall took the hat off his head. H e managed to walk to the Ravenclaw table, smiling weakly at the others. He hoped he was off to a good start.  
  
After dinner, he was taken to Ravenclaw Tower, given the password ("Augurey"), and was led upstairs to the room where he would live. He chose a bed towards the far corner, as it was closest to the window and he liked to look at the sky as he tried to fall asleep.  
  
The boy started to unpack, pulling on his pyjamas. As he entered the loo to brush his teeth, he noticed that two boys were in there, doing the same thing. He quietly moved to the sink.  
  
"You shouldn't say that, y'know," said one of the boys (Cassius Orangethorpe, if he remembered correctly). "I heard from my sister that Ravenclaw always manages to lose their first game, no matter who they play."  
  
Ah, Quidditch. Exactly what the boy did not understand. He was not an athletic boy, to be sure, and he was scared at the thought of riding a broom.  
  
"I heard that Ravenclaw has too many weak game strategies. Too complicated to follow," said the other boy, Fersken Flode.  
  
"Right, and Ambrosia says that Slytherin cheats," Cassius nodded.  
  
"So does Gryffindor," the boy added, wanting to contribute something in the conversation. Fersken and Cassius turned their heads and stared at him. "So my sister says," he added, embarrasseed.  
  
"Her name's Ixoria, right?" Cassius asked.  
  
He nodded. "Yeah, she's in third year."  
  
"Ambrosia talks about her all the time," said Cassius. "They are best friends, apparently."  
  
"It must be nice for your sister to have a best friend," the boy remarked.  
  
"Yeah, but it won't be good if I don't have one," Cassius said as he spit into the sink.  
  
A strong urge to ask Cassius if he could be the boy's best friend rose to his mind, and the boy struggled to get the words out.  
  
"I'm going to bed. You coming, Cassius?" Fersken asked.  
  
"Yeah," said Cassius, dropping his toothbrush into the cup besides the sink. Before he left the loo, he said, "G'night, Slatero."  
  
The boy just nodded his head and looked back at the mirror above the sink. He should have said something witty, something that would make Cassius laugh and be impressed and then he'd give him some guava juice that Cassius would love and they'd stay up all night talking and trading stories about pranks they had done, how to annoy their sisters, and how weird mold looks on cheese five days after it went bad, and then they'd laugh and laugh and smile at each other and their faces would be the last thing each other saw before they went to sleep.....  
  
Slatero let his tears fall silently with the running water in the sink.  
  
/center  
  
The next morning, Slatero awoke early and dressed. He spent a long time washing his face in hopes that someone would wake up and have to use the loo, but no one did. He distracted himself from this by thinking how fabulous and exciting his first day would be. He had already read the textbooks, just to be prepared and to make it easier for himself.  
  
At breakfast, a delicious array of pastries and different kinds of cooked eggs were spread about on the table as Slatero sat down. He heaped food onto his plate, his mouth watering. As he was eating his croissant, his sister sat at the table with her three friends, giggling. He watched enviously as Ixoria quietly told a story to her friends, making them laugh. They looked as though they were all close.  
  
"Hi, Ixoria," he said, loud enough for her to hear. Ixoria glanced his way, said a "Hi" quickly so she could continue with her story. Slatero stared at his plate with his croissant and eggs, dejected. She didn't even want to talk to him, her brother, her family! Wasn't there anyone who wanted to talk to him? Luckily, he did not have much time to wallow in self pity before a prefect gave him his timetable. First class of the day, Transfiguration. Should be fun.  
  
One of the first things that Slatero liked about Professor McGonagall was her appreciation for those who were prompt. He was the first one in the classroom, which he could tell that she liked by the faint smile she showed at him. Slatero sat in the first row, dead center so he could hear everything that she would be saying, and took out parchment, quill, and ink for notes.  
  
"You are Mr. Quirrell, correct?" Professor McGonagall asked.  
  
"Yes, professor, I am," said Slatero, smiling.  
  
"Good. I see you are prepared for today's lesson," she said.  
  
"What that might be, professor?" he asked curiously. McGonagall walked around the room and placed matches on every table.  
  
"Changing matchsticks into needles," she replied. Slatero quickly wrote that down at the top of his parchment and the other Ravenclaws started coming in through the door. Slatero saw Fersken and Cassius sit at a desk in the middle row, much to his disappointment. In fact, everyone sat in pairs. Everyone except for him. Slatero was just about to accept his fate that he was going to be alone for this lesson when two minutes after class had started, the last first-year Ravenclaw, Eddie Cashman, slid into the seat next to him, breathing heavily. Professor McGonagall took two points off of Ravenclaw despite Eddie explaining that he had lost his way.  
  
Then, everyone started to work. Professor McGonagall had taken the first fifteen minutes of the lesson to explain what to do. It sounded complicated, but then, Slatero always liked puzzles. He managed to change the matchstick to a needle on his second try. Professor McGonagall gave him a compliment and a small smile, and Slatero left the room at the end of the lesson beaming.  
  
No one seemed to be impressed with his Transfiguration skills, though. They were talking to their friends and did not notice him at all, at least no one did until Eddie caught up with him in a hallway.  
  
"That was brilliant," said Eddie.  
  
"Thanks," Slatero said, grinning.  
  
"It took me ages to transfigure that thing. What's your secret?"  
  
"I read the chapter of the theory in our textbook. It's quite helpful."  
  
Eddie made a face. "I wish I didn't have to actually read that Transfiguration book. Too bloody complicated."  
  
"We have to read all the books, though. Transfiguration is definitely the hardest," Slatero reassured him.  
  
"Glad for that," said Eddie and did not speak anymore to Slatero as they entered a greenhouse for Herbology.  
  
As the week passed, Slatero grew to love his classes more and more each day, except for Herbology, because the plants he took care of didn't seem to like him very much. His favorite classes were Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, and Transfiguration. Every day, Slatero tried to have a decent conversation with his sister, but Ixoria was too busy to talk to him. Either she was talking to her friends, a boy, doing her homework, or engaging in a ridiculous drinking (with Butterbeer) game. Slatero hated being rejected by his sister. They had gotten along better when they were younger, and especially before Ixoria started to go to Hogwarts.  
  
'Who needs sisters, anyway?' Slatero thought angrily one Friday afternoon as he was sitting by the lake. 'Who needs friends, too? People are idiotic, selfish, and no one likes to do the same things I do. No one likes me..' He sighed and kicked off his socks and shoes to go wading in the lake. He didn't care about getting his robes dirty – he was an eleven- year-old boy with instinctual urges to get messy, and he did know a drying and cleaning charm.  
  
Slatero's mind wandered to his home in Edinburgh, and he sniffed. He missed his mum and dad. He missed drinking guava juice and reading a R. Kinblaze novel in his bed. He missed his father telling such funny stories that Slatero's sides would ache from laughter. He missed his mother's delicious raspberry tarts. He missed home.  
  
Slatero bent down and splashed his face with lake water to make himself stop thinking of those things. Just then, he heard a noise. It sounded like bubbles underneath the water. Sure enough, a stream of bubbles came to the surface of the lake, and a huge tentacle burst through the water and moved dangerously towards him. Slatero quickly stepped back, growing more nervous as he heard clicking noises. What was this thing? He turned and rushed to the castle, barely breathing as he had run so quickly. But an idea was forming in his mind. What if he could find a spell to talk to the thing in the lake? Slatero needed someone to talk to, and using a translating charm wouldn't hurt anyone when active.  
  
He hurried to the library, eager to set his plan in motion. First, he had to ask Madam Pomfrey just what was in the lake. It was a Giant Squid. Slatero started to search for charms after that. After an hour or two of searching, he finally found one – it was a spell that had been used in the Caribbean by underwater divers who communicated with dolphins.  
  
'This is great!' he thought, grinning. 'I wonder if anyone has tried to communicate with the Giant Squid before.' He would have to find out.  
  
Slatero pulled his wand out of his pocket as soon as he came out to the lake again. He kicked off his socks and shoes again, and waded into the lake to get the Giant Squid's attention. Soon, the Giant Squid put its tentacle out into the air and made those clicking noises again. Slatero cast the spell.  
  
"Hello? Can you hear me?" he asked into the air.  
  
"Who are you, human?" a female voice said – it was the Giant Squid! It worked!  
  
"My name is Slatero Quirrell," he answered. "I wanted to talk to you, so I did this spell... and I can't believe it worked! This is so groovy!"  
  
"You wanted to talk to me?" the Giant Squid asked. "No human has ever done so before."  
  
"Well, I'm the first," said Slatero proudly. "What's your name?"  
  
"In my tongue, it is..." the Giant Squid made a series of clicks and a couple of grunt noises. Slatero listened closely, memorizing it. It would come in useful when he wanted to call her. Her name almost sounded like "Nerma," but that could have been his mind playing tricks on him.  
  
"That's a bit hard to say in English," he said. "Can I call you Nerma?"  
  
"Nerma? It sounds interesting," said the Giant Squid.  
  
"I think it's a wonderful name for such a beautiful creature like you," Slatero nodded.  
  
"You are the nicest human I have met," Nerma replied. "Most of them just throw stones in my lake and disturb the fish."  
  
"I'm sorry to hear that," said Slatero, frowning. "I have a question: what does the lake look like underwater?" Nerma then launched into a wonderful description of the seaweed, fish, and contours of the lake. Slatero listened, intrigued. In return, he told her about his room at home. Nerma told him that it sounded like a very interesting place. Slatero then learned about Nerma: she was lonely, and wanted to go to the ocean to meet some of her own kind. Her parents had been killed when she was young and some magical scientists took her for experimental purposes. For safekeeping, they put her in the lake at Hogwarts, which was deep enough for her to live. Slatero was shocked to hear some of the tests that the scientist has performed on her. It sounded very painful.  
  
Slatero and Nerma talked for a long time, until it was time for Slatero to go to dinner. He bid Nerma goodbye and promised that he would return the next day. As the Giant Squid sank back into the watery depths of the lake, Slatero was happy that he had made a friend at last. 


End file.
